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Saturday, 23 July 2011

3BT: a story, a baby, more stories

1. After four hours' sleep, even a breathless gallop up the hill to the station by no means ensures that I will make this train. But I do, and unable to keep my bleary eyes open I turn to my iPod and listen to Joshua Ferris reading out a chilling and cleverly allegorical story by George Saunders. I love these New Yorker Fiction podcasts: they feel like bite-sized pieces of an MFA in Creative Writing.

2. Across from us on the train, a blond, blue-eyed baby boy gurgles and giggles in the arms of his attentive father.

3. Books, books, books: Amsterdam is full of bookshops. I come home laden down with American magazines and new stories to sink into over this quiet part of my year.

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About Me

I’m a Christian, which, yes, means I go to Church and hold to certain beliefs, but more than that, means that I enjoy a dynamic relationship with the living God who has never not loved me, and chose me to be His since before time even began. Nothing trumps that. Nothing comes close to even comparing with it.

I’m thoroughly British but also thoroughly European. (I have French blood and a Belgian heart). Being an expat in Belgium defines and suits me, my personality, my heritage, perfectly.

Professionally, I teach English, French and Spanish to adults, freelance, face-to-face in and around Brussels, and worldwide via Skype. I also write for an English language learning magazine called the MAG and do some translation.

Speaking of writing, I also do a bit of that. The current title of the novel I’m working on is “Inevitable”, but that has already changed twice, so we shall see. Since my surname is neither memorable nor easy to spell, and of course as a tribute to the aforementioned obsession, I write as Claire Lyman. In French, I write as Aurore Delacourt, and have been doing so since my teens.

I would love to go to the States to work on the next Obama campaign (and research a future novel in the process), and end up staying to study creative writing. We shall see.